| Moved to Opinion because of Snowy Thing's in-line commentary. |
Supposedly alongside the guy whose sister was bit by a moose.
Gen. John R. Allen, commander of the International Security Assistance Force, said Major Gen. Peter Fuller was relieved of duty, effective immediately, for making "inappropriate public comments."
Mind you, moose bites can be pretty nasty.
Fuller, who was helping train and equip Afghan security forces, made less-than-diplomatic comments about the Afghan government and its leaders to a Politico reporter, including claims that some Afghan leaders are "isolated from reality."
They may not be isolated from reality per se. Maybe they're just isolated from THIS reality.
Politico quoted Fuller as criticizing Afghan President Hamid Karzai for saying Afghanistan would side with Pakistan against America in war.
AH. So we're actually supposed to be happy about that?
"Why don't you just poke me in the eye with a needle?" Fuller said. "You've got to be kidding me. I'm sorry, we just gave you $11.6 billion, and now you're telling me, 'I don't really care'?"
It's like Louisiana, you can't buy the politicians, you can only rent them.
U.S. officials have said Karzai's remarks were misunderstood.
General Fuller apparently feels otherwise. I suspect the unnamed officials may have the disjoint reality problem as well.
Politico reported Fuller also as saying, in reference to Karzai, "when they are going to have a presidential election, you hope they get a guy that's more articulate."
He told Politico he recently told the Afghans: "I said, 'You guys are isolated from reality.' The reality is, the world economy is having some significant hiccups. The U.S. is in this (too). If you're in a very poor country like Afghanistan, you think that America has roads paved in gold; everybody lives in Hollywood. They don't understand the sacrifices that America is making to provide for their security. And I think that's part of my job, to educate 'em."
My opinion? If they're so goddamn concerned about how goddamn wealthy we allegedly are, they can actually get the hell to work and build a FUNCTIONING CIVIL SOCIETY. We can't do it for them, and throwing money at the problem only makes it worse if they insist on dividing themselves into honorless serfs and a Warlord Class. Because, IMHO, it's never _only_ the Warlord Class that decides that everyone who can't enforce the existence of their honor with the point of an AK-47 is apparently without honor. The people start out doing it to each other, down at the atomic social level, and the Warlord Class only takes advantage of the situation, after re-establishing their family's rights. It doesn't help that half the country is kept illiterate because of their gender and THEN handed the job of raising the next generation. They teach their kids to fight from an early age, but they teach them, as a collective society, to all be victims of their aggressive neighbors.
What diminishing (thanks to the left) 'riches' the United States has inherited weren't because someone gave us a pile of damn foreign-aid gold at some point, or because we conquered all the parts of Mexico that had all the good roads. Come to Louisiana and I'll show you how untrue that is. It's because we were taught habits of success, both personally and with respect to other people. Especially, respecting other people. I don't think you can expect to be too successful if you're continually screwing other people over and too busy guarding against retribution to ever get any real work done. You can't have any self-respect if you're too busy being scared of all the people you've disrespected for being the wrong clan/tribe/branch of your in-laws.
In a statement, Allen said, "These unfortunate comments are neither indicative of our current solid relationship with the government of Afghanistan, its leadership, or our joint commitment to prevail here in Afghanistan. The Afghan people are an honorable people, and comments such as these will not keep us from accomplishing our most critical and shared mission - bringing about a stable, peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan."
Again, I wonder about the Disjoint Reality bit.Also, I wonder when the government is going to acknowledge that WE are an honorable people who deserve better than junk like Gunwalker... but I digress. If everyone in Afghanistan is so damn honorable, why the hell do we have to shoot people? Does that mean that by definition we're dishonorable? Or does he mean to speak like Marc Antony, and say thus are they all honorable men?
Spokesmen for both the International Security Assistance Force and the training mission said Fuller was quoted accurately.
It's only Karzai's words that are figments of our imagination. If only Karzai were a figment of our imagination as well. Maybe he is but I need to spend more time at the Temple meditating before I'm freed from the illusion of Karzai's existance."Gen. Fuller was not misquoted," said Col. David Johnson, a spokesman for the American-led training mission. "What was reported by Politico is accurate."
Why not just say he was misunderstood like the crackhead you've put in charge of the political leadership of the country?
Fuller was on his way back to Afghanistan from Washington on Friday and could not be reached for comment.
ISAF issued a statement earlier Friday that said, "These unfortunate comments are clearly MG Fuller's personal opinions. However, they in no way represent the policies or positions of the International Security and Assistance Force."
I guess the people who actually leave the air conditioning could not be reached for comment.
An ISAF official said it is expected that senior commanders will speak with Fuller on his return to ask him for further details. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has been made aware of Fuller's comments, according to spokesman George Little.
WE'RE GOING TO TE-ELL! WE'RE GOING TO TE-ELLL!"
Fuller was the deputy commander of the NATO training mission in charge of programs. That put him in command of $11 billion in equipment, supplies, training and contracts.
Not any more. Maybe he'll be replaced by someone who knows to act like they're made of money.
On the same day as the Politico article, Fuller gave a news conference in Washington where he spoke about many of the same topics as in the article but took a much more positive tone toward the Afghan government.
At a National Press Club event, the general said the Afghan National Security Forces was drawing recruits.
"We're having more people come that want to serve their country than we can accept," Fuller said. "We deny about 1,500 people a month that are coming in."
Probably because they flunked the test for the proper order of Pillage-then-Burn. But hey, we're made of money.